The Heberleins: Three Generations Working Together to Create a Successful Family Dream

Prologue: A beach on the Maldives. Turquoise water and clear blue skies. A fresh breeze dances through palm leaves. Even the white drapes of a canopy and white ribbons tied to an arrangement of chairs swing softly to and fro. A man and woman exchange vows while little grains of sand tingle pleasantly between their toes. They have fulfilled their dream. A wedding in paradise.

Joachim Heberlein, born 1965 and raised in Bavaria, is the current #1 leader at PM-International. In the summer of 2018, he became the first and up to now only person to qualify for the Platinum Champion’s League. He’s a businessman to the core. That’s for sure. As a trained radio and television technician (not to mention his 20 years’ experience as a one-man-show), Joachim’s beginning is just as down-to-earth as Rolf Sorg’s, founder and CEO of PM, who started out as a car mechanic only to build up a multi-million global company.

Out of Love for his Wife

Honestly, Joachim partly owes his success today to his wife Petra. When they met, his income wasn’t higher than 800€. And when Petra said she wanted to have 5 children, the math was easily done. 5 kids and the income of a radio and television engineer just didn’t add up. Frankly, Joachim had to decide: new girlfriend or new job. But when the love of your life comes knocking at your door, you don’t try to change her dreams. You find a way to make it work. Petra was the one! Joachim says: “Back then, my wife wanted to start a family by all means. It was clear to me that I had to stock up financially.”

After two years working for a German investment counselling company (Deutsche Vermögensberatung), he spent another two years at a big American network marketing company, where he was first introduced to the direct selling industry. Still, he wasn’t quite where he wanted to be. When he became a distributor for PM in 1995, he knew that he would able to reach his dreams and goals with the company and its products: “The qualification for the President’s Team after only one month really stirred my ambition. I wasn’t able to stop anymore, neither did I want to.” After 8 years he and his family were financially independent. And he’s stayed on the road of success ever since.

Petra and Joachim

Convincing Arguments

What started out as vision of 5 children, ended up being only 2. But the sons Marcel (27) and Sandro (23), in the meantime even grandson Levi has joined the clan, made their life complete. Today, Marcel (Silver President’s Team) and Sandro (Executive Vice President) as well as Marcel’s wife Linda, Joachim’s parents and his brother and sister-in-law (all of them President’s Team) are working in the family business. They always had unrestricted freedom in choosing what they want to do. Joachim and Petra functioned as living examples of doing what you love. The family has a motto for a reason: Love what you do and put your whole heart into it. While Marcel worked as a realtor for a while, Sandro studies International Business Administration. The decision to follow their dad and join PM after all was really based on pragmatics and the benefits of direct selling: great flexibility in terms of time and financial independence with the best possible chance of success.

Sandro, Linda, Marcel and Levi

The Secret of Success

You see successful people and ask yourself: How do they do it? Joachim let’s us in on his secret. Although, actually it’s not a secret at all, because it’s what his whole team lives by: Conviction forms the basis. You need to be convinced of and excited about what you do. Only then can you reach other people. The team, which Joachim has built up around himself throughout the years, lives by the motto Leadership by Heart. You can see his team out and about with red balloons because that’s their trademark. Mentoring partners with sincerity and the joy of giving something without expecting anything in return, characterizes his team. And that’s the whole secret. So, it has nothing to do with the art of quantum physics. It is simply a matter of natural humanity.

Linda and Marcel getting married in the Maldives, while little Levi plays in the sand.

Much More than Just a Business

Marcel and his wife Linda have clearly demonstrated that PM is so much more than just a business. And that brings us right back to the start. Now, you can imagine who the man and woman, who exchanged vows in front of a dream backdrop at the beginning, were. Marcel and Linda chose the World Tour 2018 for their wedding on purpose. Because this journey brought together their friends from all around the world, who they have made through PM, in one place.

Rolf and Vicki are two of them. They felt honored that Marcel and Linda chose the company’s travel incentive to be the stage of their wedding. However, considering that Marcel and Sandro spent the majority of their lives growing up with PM, it’s only logical to have come to this. Because PM makes friendships across borders. And so, Marcel and Linda entered the bond of marriage, surrounded by family and friends, who they would have never met without PM.

Success is not bound to certain qualifications or experiences. Instead, success is measured by personal willpower and commitment to make dreams come true. Joachim and his family’s extraordinary achievement demonstrates once again that anyone can make it at PM, no matter how many knobs may have been turned already.